Unknown God

Knowing the unknown God

Acts 17:16-33

Good morning, please turn to the book of Acts chapter 17-

I am excited to be home from a bucket list vacation to Greece and Turkey to experience the footprints of Apostle Paul as he journeyed on his second missionary trip to spread the gospel.

His supernatural transformation on the road to Damascus Acts chapter 9

Sermon title –knowing the unknown God-

Paul on his first missionary journey started several churches up and down the coast of Greece and Asia Minor.

On his second missionary journey he was going to see how they were doing.

Each one of them got a letter from him stating what was good and right they were doing and also what they needed to correct.

It has been said that if Paul visited the churches today that we would also be getting a letter

We went with a group of 45 people mostly from our friend church in Winchester Va. The guide (Tina) we had was like an encyclopedia of information.

I had information overload and also the fact that we had a very busy schedule to keep to be able to see everything.

It is not my intent to throw all this info at you this morning but to show you how important it was to the gospel being spread and the great plan of God that all were able to hear the gospel preached and taught that we might have a chance to decide for ourselves.

Paul’s first journey was starting churches and his second journey he wanted to go back to these established churches and see how they were doing- Paul writes to the Ephesians, Philippians, Corinthians, Thessalonians, Colossians church with pros and cons of their behavior and to Titus on how a church should function and operate under correct leadership and discipleship.

We see that each church had people problems that had to be addressed.

The book of Acts is the recorded history of how Christianity was founded and organized.

The community of believers began by faith in the risen Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit, who enabled them to be witnesses, to love and to serve the Lord.

Churches grew from Jews, non-Jews spreading the word in 39 cities, 30 countries, and several islands.

We were able to see some of the islands, Patmos (Crete) where John was kept prisoner. The ancient cities of Philippi, Ephesus, Corinth, Thessaloniki, and the booming city of Athens- Which was my favorite place.

Our text this morning speaks of Paul on Mars Hill and talking to all the high ups and those who were intellectually superior to most of the people in town.

Picture a massive amount of people on a huge rock that overlooked the city of Athens and Paul describe the false gods and idols and then begin to tell them that they can now the unknown god they also worshiped. (don’t say you were on it)

Acts 17:16-33 Read from Bible slowly and clearly

Athens is a magnificent place with fabulous buildings and fine art. It is also a place with many gods that was the center of their culture. Philosophers and educators were always ready to hear something new. They invited Paul to speak to them at a meeting. Epicureans and Stoics were the dominate philosophers in Greek culture.

Epicureans believed that seeking happiness or pleasure was the primary goal of life. They were the fun ones to be around. They would try anything, believe anything.

Stoics believed that thinking was above feelings and tried to live in harmony with nature and reason, suppressing their desire for pleasure. They would be the downers, they would over think everything and do nothing new and not want or encourage change.

Two different approaches to life…They invited Paul to speak on knowing the one true God. Paul spoke on a low hill in Athens near the Acropolis. As Paul spoke the audience could look down on the city and see the many idols representing gods that Paul knew were worthless.

Paul was a rabbi, he was taught by the finest scholar of the day in Gamaliel. (Ga-may.lee.l) Paul had spent much of his time thinking and reasoning through the scriptures. That is what the philosophers did well.

Paul had to do more than preach with a conviction, he had to be prepared to prove what he said through scripture and experience.

(In verse 22) Paul showed us how to communicate the gospel. He did not begin by reciting Jewish history, as usually done. This would have been meaningless to the Greeks.

HE BEGAN BUILDING A CASE FOR THE ONE TRUE GOD THAT THEY WOULD UNDERSTAND.

“Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus (Airy-op-pa-gus) and said: Men of Athens, I see that you are very religious. (Some versions say superstitious)For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: To an unknown God. Now what you worship is something unknown. I am going to proclaim to you.”